Lesson 7: Chiaki and Kazuo
Chiaki is still making little progress with the S Orchestra as their antics (led by Mine) and his own temper are causing chaos between both sides. Nodame introduces him to “Puri Gorota" as a way to show him the problem while the jealous conducting-student Ookochi is eager for him to fail and the school board is planning to disband the S Orchestra. Summary Practice is off to a bad start as Chiaki is highly annoyed with Mine, threatening to kick him out of concertmaster position if he doesn’t improve, then moving on to scold everyone else. At Chinese Restaurant Uraken, several of the faculty members leisurely discuss disbanding Special Orchestra now that Stresemann has rejected it, laughing over how they can’t possibly outplay the A orchestra. Prof. Taniko, who is siting with them, expresses his confidence in Chiaki’s conducting skills and after bringing up how excited Stresemann is to “defeat” the S Orchestra, the teachers decide to let them play for the Subscription Concert and then disband them. Conducting the A Orchestra, Stresemann finishes their practice and though one of the students complains that they’ve only been practicing for a short time, he insists that he has a busy schedule (another date) and tells them they’re skilled enough to not need his instructions. Later, a different student approaches him, Ookochi Mamoru, who is one of his conducting students and begs to be allowed to conduct in his place. The boy points out that Chiaki was made a conductor previously and Stresemann asks what the “collateral” is, clearly insinuating a bribe would be required, to Ookochi’s shock. While Nodame is admiring a poster for the upcoming Subscription Concert, she finds Ookochi spying into the S Orchestra’s practice and tries to get him to leave, calling him a spy from the A Orchestra. He introduces himself as a conducting major (and seems to thinks he’s popular), but the discussion is cut short when the S Orchestra members charge out of the practice with some (like Mine) in tears over Chiaki’s harsh attitude. Most of the members have had their pride destroyed and some want to boycott which overjoys Ookochi as a judge of Chiaki’s conducting abilities. He decides that he will bribe Milch for a conducting spot after all and leaves while laughing in confidence, to Nodame’s distress. At home, Chiaki is trying to figure out why the orchestra can’t play a certain part and Nodame, seeing that he’d forgotten to make them dinner, offers a large amount of rice balls (one of the few dishes she can’t ruin). To settle his mind, she plays him her favorite video “Puri Gorota: The Fellowship of the Great Space Adventures”. The basic story is that a young boy, Gorota, is given valuable help from one of his comrades, Kazuo, and later, despite Kazuo being a bully, saves his life when no one else is willing to elp him the boy. By the end of it, Chiaki is disturbed and rejects Nodame’s ideas that he’s like the Kazuo character even as he goes on yelling at her (basically a born bully). Practice begins the next day and Chiaki is amazed that the players have managed to get a good sound going. However, as it progresses, their sounds become out of sync and he realizes no one is paying him any attention, tensely looking at their music scores. As he starts getting hallucinations of Kazuo’s face and becoming sick from the distorted noise, he collapses from the stand but is caught by Mine. Chiaki recognizes his act of kindness as just like Nodame’s movie. While that night she wails at him over not eating more, he tells Nodame that rather than having done that to him as a boycott, everyone apologized over not looking at his conducting because they were trying so hard to play the score right. Though he’s happy they could all play it correctly, he wonders if this affect is really what he was going for. Nodame interrupts him by playing the piece on the piano, having memorized it, and though it isn’t quite how it’s supposed to be, Chiaki admits it’s just as amazing as every time that she plays, full of individuality. He finally realizes why the Maestro chose them all to be in the Special Orchestra. The next practice, Chiaki apologizes to the S Orchestra and tells them to forget his instruction from before and recreate their performance. The concert is tomorrow and they don’t have much time to restart, but he wants them to give more impact, even using the images of Napoleon Mine wanted from before. Elsewhere, Milch is finishing up his own practice with the A Orchestra while Ookochi gripes that he’d never gotten a chance to conduct even after giving the Maestro a bribe of money, declaring himself more talented than Chiaki. The 28th Subscription Concert is ready to begin and while Chiaki is in full conducting clothes (thanks to Nodame), the rest are still in their T-shirts because they’d practiced all night long. Shinichi is annoyed but instead, he strips off his extra clothes to match their causal style and after giving them an unexpected pep talk, takes to the stage for their big depute. The faculty in the audience is concerned that the orchestra will shame their school but after hearing only a few movements, they are impressed with their abilities even as it’s supposed to be the previously failing students. The audience is captivated by them and even after Chiaki lets Mine do his silly “Jimmy Hendricks-like” pose, Stresemann smiles at the performance and they receive a round of applause. Ookochi, however, is not pleased with this splendid performance, or Chiaki for that matter, calling it all a trick and showing off. He’s approached by Stresemann who, after inquiring of his watching the A orchestra practice and studying the score, tells him to take over the conduction of A Orchestra as the maestro claims to have developed a stomachache. In the end, Ookochi can’t do this spur-of-the-moment conduction and A Orchestra’s performance is a flop. Back at Uraken, the same faculty from before is now gladly discussing that they keep the orchestra, proclaiming all its good points, particularly Chiaki. Nodame finds Chiaki sleeping on a bench outside and, taking her chance, lands a kiss on his cheek before running away happily. Chiaki, who wasn’t really sleeping, shrugs it off as a thanks he’s giving her for all her help. He blushes as he thinks this, though, and from the window of the school, Stresemann is burning up with rage over it. Featured Music *Beethoven: **Symphony No. 3 "Eroica"